


Luke's Next Adventure

by yeti100



Series: Luke's Next Adventure [1]
Category: Sarah Jane Adventures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-13
Updated: 2012-07-13
Packaged: 2017-11-09 21:25:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/458611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeti100/pseuds/yeti100
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>following the adventures of luke smith as he goes through his knew life in university. Will have guests from all over the SJA show but mostly focusing on Luke.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Intro

**Author's Note:**

> this story is also posted on fanfiction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke Smith alien magnet

Luke's POV

university is amazing i never thought i could find anywhere that would push my intelligence but here i am and the challenges I'm finding are just...brilliant. my first few weeks here have been a blur what with moving in, getting to know my way around the campus and attending my first lectures but i think I'm finally settling down. it's good having K-9 here with me, although it would complicate things if i ever wanted to invite anyone back to my room to go over lecture notes or stuff like that, but so far that hasn't been a problem. i always knew that making new friends at university would be difficult, but, i keep thinking I just have to pluck up my courage and talk to someone but whenever i try to i can feel something cold tighten around my chest, almost like i can't breathe guess its just nerves, maybe I'll get lucky and someone will talk to me first, till then i have mum, Clyde and Rani to speak to at home.

"so Luke boy how are you enjoying the life of a carefree bachelor"

Clyde was always phoning at this time to make sure I'm okay, the funny thing is i'm sure he should be in class at the same time.

"I'm good Clyde my lecturer is really funny and I've been learning so much its brilliant"

it was the truth, despite my lack of social progress university really is brilliant.

"good to hear, alright I'll have to talk later rani's dad just walked in and he doesn't look happy with me"

"alright Clyde talk to you later"

it was then that i saw him, i didn't notice anything out of the ordinary at first, but then i saw something in the corner of my eye, another student about the same age as me, well sort of, he was arguing with one of the lecturers and he was angry that much was obvious from his face, and his hair, i thought i might be seeing things at first but as he argued his hair turned a deep red that blazed across his head, and then he turned to me i saw straight into his eyes that burned with the same colour and he looked back and i ran. i don't know why i ran but i felt the same tightening in my chest and all i wanted was the safety of my room and K-9.

"master, master is there something wrong i sense elevated levels of anxiety"

"I'm fine K-9 i just...i just saw something..."

"master suggest contacting Sarah Jane she may be able to help"

"maybe, i think for now I'll go back down and get some food first ok"

"affirmative young master"

Marcus's POV

i can't believe my lecturers sometimes this man was infuriating and worse i can sense the smug satisfaction he is feeling because of my reaction.

"its not my fault i missed the deadline i was in hospital for two weeks"

"i know and i gave you an extra week to complete the assignment"

"great i lose two weeks and gain one, you know its a good thing your not in charge of the maths department"

"my decision is fi...

i ignored whatever the windbag in front of me was saying, i could feel someones eyes on my back and a fear that wasn't mine i turned around and caught the eyes of a young man who turned and ran before i could reach deeper into his emotions.

"alright whatever I'm gonna get the assignment done"

i turned on my heels and headed off before the old fart could drone on any further, that strange guy saw me for what i am he must be an alien and if he is an alien then there's a good chance he is here looking for me.

it took me about an hour to find him and when i did he wasn't hiding like i expected just tucking into a plate of scrambled eggs in one of the kitchens. i stayed out of sight for a while until he went back to his room then flicked open the scanner my parents had left me.

"alien technology detected, i knew it"

i ignored the strange looks my comment got me and left and went back to my room to wait until it was night. my perception filter will keep me from being detected and I'll make sure he never gets to use whatever technology he has. i don't know who sent this guy but i'm not going to let him take me back.

Luke's POV

I haven't seen that strange guy since this afternoon I'm beginning to wonder if i just imagined what i saw, i talked to maria about it after my dinner and she reckons that there is a pretty slim chance that he is actually an alien. with my fears put to rest for the moment i decided to take a shower and get an early night. the water was refreshing and helped wash away my fears, that is until i turned off the shower and a strange noise from the other side of the bathroom door sent the same fears stampeding through my head all over again. stepping out of the shower i turned off the shower and wrapped a towel around myself. opening the door my light was off.

"K-9...K-9 are you there"

i took a step further into the room and the bathroom door slammed shut behind me. i turned too slow. it was the same guy from earlier before i could register what was happening i was pinned against the wall and a hand burning around my neck.

Marcus's POV

"who are you and why are you here!"

i had the little worm but unlike the righteous preaching i was expecting all i got was fear

"what do you mean, what are you doing"

if this was an act it was very convincing

"don't try that I'm not stupid i know your an alien and i know your afraid of me, and..."

"please i don't know what you mean I'm not an alien!"

panic flashed across his face as i tightened my grip and i felt the same fear claw its way out from the back of his mind, but the weird thing is that he isn't afraid of me

"if your not an alien then who are you"

something wasn't right and i think both of us were beginning to realise

"please let me go and i'll explain"

"OK"

it took about an hour to him to explain his situation i can't believe how far off base i was, to think this guy, this kid was grown from synthesised DNA it was hard to believe but there wasn't a trace of a lie in what he said. after that it took about another hour to explain my situation

"so your an alien, and your here as a refugee"

"yeah i'm hiding from the war on my planet, they'd resorted to blitz tactics like in world war 2 on your planet, my dad has a spaceship of his own and managed to get me off world before my home..."

i had to stop at that point, the images of my home burning were still clear in my head

"and your species is empathic, you can actually sense the emotions of other people"

"yeah, i sensed your fear it was what made me suspicious, that and the alien technology my scan turned up, speaking of which"

"oh, K-9 here boy"

a small blue metallic dog rolled out from his hiding place

"i apologise for not assisting you master i was recharging"

"thats ok K-9 i wasn't really in danger"

"so this is the metal dog that your mum got from the doctor"

"yep"

"the doctor is the most intelligent man you've ever met and he can't manage a better name than K-9

"the young alien seems hostile should i chase him away master"

"no don't worry K-9, you go back to recharging"

"affirmative master"

"well I'm sorry i made such a big mistake Luke, and very sorry that i attacked you"

"it's fine you aren't the first alien to attack me...although i think you are the first to apologise"

this teased a laugh out of me, i couldn't help it i started this thinking he was here to take me from the life i built on earth and it turns out this guy is in pretty much the same situation as i am

"well Luke i think i can do something more than saying sorry, the fear i felt when you saw me, i was the trigger but i'm not the source, with your permission i could help you figure out what is causing you to be afraid"

"can you do that"

"I'm a bit out of practice but yeah i think i can do it"

"then yes i would like your help"

Luke's POV

i wasn't sure what was going to happen but if Marcus can sense my emotions i think it is possible he can help me figure out what it is that I'm so afraid of. he told me to relax and then placed his fingers against the side of my head. it was a strange sensation when he began to reach into my mind i could feel him touch each of my memories in turn and i could feel the emotion emanating from each memory. this process stretched on for a while i began to lose track of time, then Marcus touched against one of my more recent memories and i felt fear close like a vice around my chest, for a second i couldn't breathe.

"luke, luke! take a breath"

i took a long shuddering breath and then another until i was breathing properly again

"well i think i've found the source of your fear...Luke who is the nightmare man"

i paused for a second every part of me was praying that i had heard wrong even as the rest of me new i heard him correctly

"no please it can't be him, it can't, he can't of come back for me"

i retreated across the room, and i was crying i couldn't help it. i wasn't enough to stop him on my own the last time and without Rani and Clyde i don't think i could do it again

"Luke! relax whoever the nightmare man was it isn't him i found in your head i think what i found is more like an echo of who he was"

"what do you mean"

"the memories of that creature, that entity, they hold a lot of fear for you, and when you forced him out of your mind, what was left behind, uh how to explain this ah its like background radiation left behind from the times he was marching around your head"

"so it isn't him"

my voice broke as i tried to stay calm i could barely keep myself from crying again

"no it definitely isn't"

"can you get rid of it, whatever it is"

he looked at me for a moment like he was trying to make a difficult decision

"i could get rid of him Luke, quite easily in fact, but I'm not going to, you are"

"what! i can't!"

" don't worry you won't have to do it alone, I'll help, i can take you into your own mind to confront him, and you can free your mind of whatever remnants are left behind"

"no I..."

"yes you can Luke and more to the point, i think you need to do this otherwise you're never going to stop being afraid of him"

i didn't want to agree with him but he was right i have to do this

"Ok"

"right sit yourself down again i'll take you to where he is hiding, you handle the rest"

it took Marcus a few minutes to manage whatever he was doing but when he succeeded my room dissolved around me and i was left standing infront of a door in a dark corner of my mind

"Marcus"

"right here Luke"

"is he behind that door"

"yep and he's scared, he put that door there to keep you out luke, he knows your coming for him"

i wish i shared Marcus's optimism, but i did have a few small rays of hope to hold onto, one whatever is behind this door isn't the nightmare man, and two whatever species marcus is, i think he is a lot more powerful than he's letting on

"ok lets do this"

i put my hand against the door, it felt ice cold under my fingers, i paused for a second, part of me wanted to turn and run, but i ignored it and pushed the door letting it swing inwards on its hinges

"well if it isn't little lukey so nice to see you again, come to rejoin me in your nightmares"

he was there the nightmare man, just like i remembered him for a heart stopping second i though Marcus was wrong that this was the nightmare man, but i pushed those fears aside and stepped further into the room

"be quiet, i know you're not the nightmare man"

"can you be sure, can you be sure the fool behind you hasn't led you to your doom"

"what do you mean"

the nightmare man sensed my hesitation and pushed his advantage

"it is true i'm not what i was but now that fool has led you here led you to me led you back into the darkness of your nightmares"

he let loose his shrieking laugh and danced towards me with a spring in his step, i can feel myself growing cold, i can't stop him

"enough of your games creature!"

Marcus's voice boomed around the dark room full of ferocity, at the same time i coud feel some of his confidence wash over me allowing me to think clearly, and so i did exactly what i needed to do to get rid of my nightmares, i turned on a light

"no! how did you do that lukey that isn't playing fair"

"this is my mind nightmare man i can do whatever i like"

i stepped forwards and willed another light into existence forcing the nightmare man back further into the room

"you hide in the darkness so i'm going to drag you into the light"

the nightmare man had run out of places to hide and was withering away under the glow of the lights

"you can never be rid of me lukey, i will always be here and you will always be afraid of me"

he was trying to scare me trying to keep a grip in my mind, but i wasn't scared anymore i was angry

"your nothing but a pathetic little man hiding in the back of my mind and i want you gone!"

"no i will never leave you can never destroy me!" the nightmare man yelled this even as he began to shrivel in the light

"GET OUT!"

there was a flash of light when the nightmare man shattered so bright i had to close my eyes when i opened them again i was back in my room and marcus was sprawled against the wall on the other side of my room.

"marcus are you alright"

he was a little slow to react but when he got his bearing back he burst out laughing.

"hahaha! you got to be careful when you flex your mental muscles like that luke, you have some serious psychic power tucked away in that head of yours"

i felt a blush creeping across my face and not knowing what to say i started laughing i couldn't help it

"so is that it is he gone, i mean, i can still remember him he is still part of my memory"

M searched my eyes as i spoke i could feel him brush against my emotions

"those memories are part of you i can never erase them, but the fear that those emotions held for you is back in balance and whatever echo of him that lurked in your mind is gone"

i thought back to my memories and my nightmares and he was right my fear was nothing more than a memory.

"thank you"

there wasn't anything else i could say, my mum, Clyde, Rani and me had defeated the nightmare man and now Marcus had helped me get rid of him for good.

"now come on its already moving towards midnight and i have an early lecture in the morning and an assignment to finish"

"OK goodnight Marcus"

he gave me a quick smile as he left the room and when my head hit the pillow i drifted into a deep peaceful sleep


	2. Back In Time For Pirates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After all this time Luke really should have guessed that a simple visit to see his mum could never be that simple

"finally that assignment is finished, never thought I'd be so glad to see the back of it, thanks for your all your help Luke"

"well i figured you helped me with my nightmare man so i'd help you with yours"

i shot Luke a playful glare at that but he still looked really pleased with himself and his joke

"so what are you going to do with your long weekend oh great comedy wizard"

"mums going to meet me and we are going to spend some time looking around the shops"

"sounds good"

it did sound like a good thing his mum really did seem to care about him

"hey why don't you come with me, mum has been wanting to meet you, she probably wants to get some inside info on what I've been eating and what state my room is in"

i doubt she would be happy with what i had to report, lukes room really is quite messy, i doubt it would be liveable without K-9's help

"yeah OK, although i can't promise i won't tell her the truth"

Luke pouted at this but their was mischief in his eyes

"fair enough, if that's the case i may have to tell my mum that your secretly trying to destroy the earth"

damn he really was too smart for his own good but its hard to stay angry when he has that big goofy smile plastered all over his face

"OK fair enough, i won't mention the state of your room if you promise not to trick your mum into kicking my butt"

"deal, I'll be leaving early tomorrow morning, see you by my car"

watching him stroll back to his room i couldn't help but think, what have i gotten myself into

Marcus did end up oversleeping and i had to come bang on his door to get him up, but after a quick bowl of cereal each we were off down the motorway, i was glad to be meeting up with mum. being at university is great and hanging around with Marcus is a lot of fun, but I've been getting a little homesick, still a day out with mum and K-9 should help fix that.

"master are we there yet"

"K-9 if you ask me that question again i will switch you off"

Marcus was in fits of giggles beside me, until my phone interrupted

"give me that Luke, and keep your eyes on the road, hello"

i couldn't hear who was on the other end but i guessed it was mum, Marcus concentrated for a few minutes before hanging up

"that was your mum, and we've had a change of plans, K-9 can you direct us to the old Manfredi buildings?"

"affirmative Marcus"

"whats there?"

"well according to your mum and Mr Smith trouble, serious trouble, someone is making use of the abandoned warehouses that are part of the property, and whatever they are doing is giving off some serious energy readings"

"so we're going to get together with mum and investigate"

"oh yes"

i can't wait, nothing like and investigation to cure my homesickness.

it took us a few hours to find the Manfredi buildings but we still arrived there before mum. i gave her a quick call to find out what we should do

"yeah we're at the warehouses, and you're right K-9 is picking up some really high energy readings"

"alright set up a perimeter and make sure no one can get close until we know what we're dealing with"

"ok mum"

"and stay sharp"

"yes mum we'll be careful"

i hung up and we took a careful look around

"i can't see any entrances other than the one we came through, can you?"

i took a quick look round before nodding my agreement

"alright then Luke, shall we go take a look around"

"mum told us to wait until she got here"

"yeah well we won't do much, just have a quick peek"

i decided against arguing, after telling K-9 to stay put and keep people out, we both crept slowly into the first warehouse. our search didn't turn up much until we got to the third building where we saw two deep blue aliens working around a massive spherical containment device, i have know idea what it is but the aliens are in constant movement keeping this thing under control, still having four arms seems to be making life easier for them.

"Marcus do you know who they are or what that is"

"yeah those two are veldens and that thing looks like it is a compression field designed to compress artron energy"

"Ok what are they trying to do?"

Marcus looked worried which isn't something i see often

"if they can keep up the flow of artron energy and compress it enough they can form a chronon particle"

"is that bad"

i could guess the answer but decided to make sure

"if they succeed and the compression field fails, the particle could destabilise and explode with enough force to knock the earth out of orbit"

that was bad

"OK Luke i know your mum said not to get involved but by the look of that thing they're almost done we have to interrupt the experiment"

"ok how?"

"if we destroy the compression field now before they can finish then that should stop them, and probably put them off trying again"

"ok what will happen to the energy they've already condensed"

he took a moment to answer "it will explode"

i looked at him and shot him my best your insane look

"i know its a bad plan Luke but the explosion won't be half as bad as the one they could cause and once we've damaged the field, we'll have enough time to outrun the blast"

my mum isn't going to like this when she finds out

i took a deep breath to calm myself before speaking "OK lets do it"

we both took up positions around the edges of the warehouse, Marcus was going to play decoy, when i have a clear path my job is to smash the machine. i waited for his signal and then leaped from my hiding place. the aliens were oblivious to me as they moved chased after Marcus. i grabbed one of the tools laying on the ground. and smashed it into the glass containment field as hard as i could.

the second i made contact alarms went off everywhere

"Luke run"

i didn't need him to tell me twice, we both scrambled towards the exit, even as the containment field collapsed behind us. i thought we had escaped, but the explosion struck us both full force and i lost consciousness.

my wake-up call wasn't exactly a pleasant one, i woke up facedown in the ocean, and luke was nowehere in sight, after a few spluttering breaths i took in my what i could see

"how the hell did i end up in the middle of the ocean?"

my question wasn't voiced to anyone in particular and i wasn't really expecting an answer, i pushed myself round in a circle in the water. a few times, before i finally got lucky and saw a ship in the water. deciding it was my best chance i swam towards it as fast as my soggy clothes would let me. after what felt like and hour of pushing myself through the water, the ship noticed me and adjusted its course to fish me out of the water, as it got closer i couldn't help but notice the design of the ship, it looked like something out of pirates of the Caribbean.

"well what have we here, the fish are getting stranger by the day"

strange was definitely the word, with a rapier on his hip and black sails on the mast, the man that fished me out of the ocean was a pirate.

"well has the ocean claimed your tongue and your manners speak up boy"

i tried for about a second gave up and settled for coughing up more seawater, this earned me a few chuckles from the crew assembled around me

"send him to my quarters and bring up the other one too, he's the second lad I've fished out of the ocean in the space of a week and i want to know why"

i didn't have much time to think on his words, as his men quickly went to work fulfilling there orders, and before i knew it i was being shoved further into the ship.  
after a few minutes of waiting the captain entered followed by none other than Luke.

"Marcus!"

he ran towards me and i pulled him into a hug, it felt good to see him, and the feeling was mutual, i could sense waves of relief flowing from him

"well you two know each other it seems, this tale is getting more interesting by the minute"

interesting was right, my brain was working overtime to try and put together what happened

"so you two i want an explanation if you please, and a decent reason why i shouldn't throw you back where i found you"

"honestly I'm not sure, but listen in because I'm starting to figure it out"

i turned to luke hopefully he would be able to fill in a few of the holes in my theory

"OK the explosion is what caused this, that much is obvious, and i think we can also safely assume that we're somewhere in the past, but how?"

"i think it has something to do with the artron energy, the doctor says its what powers his tardis, which can travel in time"

I'd have to ask him about the doctor and the tardis someday, that left just a few more pieces missing from our theory

"OK so instead of blasting us to oblivion, the explosion sent us back in time, then we should be more or less where the factory is, will be, good time travel is confusing"

"the blast wave must have thrown us outwards from the centre of the explosion"

the pirate captain who had held his peace up until now decided to interrupt

"well gents I'm glad you've managed to sort out, whatever it was you were talking about, now back to the decision of what to do with you, my first instinct would be to throw you off my ship, this is no place for madmen"

i decided to think on my feet, i had the beginnings of a plan in my mind and not enough time to think it through

"yes, that's more or less what your going to do" Luke opened his mouth to interrupt, but i cut him off before he had a chance "one condition, your going to take us to England, before you throw us overboard

"and why pray tell would i do something like that?"

Luke looked like he was thinking the same thing, i needed to give the captain some incentive. lets try being nice first

"because in return I'll give you this"

i reached for the chain that held my perception filter, and removed the ring that was also held there, i could see and feel the captain react to it i knew i had his attention

"tis a pretty trinket lad, but I'm not sure it is worth the journey your asking me to undertake, especially when i could just take it from you"

i was expecting this, time to drop the nice act

"let me make one thing clear captain, i don't have to be nice here, if i wanted to i could force you and your entire crew to take me where i need to go" i reached for my perception filter as i spoke and let the good captain see just what he's dealing with " but I'm trying to be civil about this"

the captain could see the dark streaks of red that spread through my hair and into my eyes, but to his credit his fear didn't spread to his face

"well its seems we have an understanding, i don't know who our what you two are, but the sooner your off my ship the better, now I'll just inform my crew of our knew course"

he left rather quickly and i heard him yelling orders to his crew, Luke listened for a second before turning to me

"OK so he's taking us to England but that still doesn't help if we're stuck in the past"

i pulled out the scanner hidden in my pocket quickly to confirm my suspicions before answering

"yeah sorry Luke didn't have a lot of time to explain, my nifty little scanner here is still detecting artron energy, which mean the explosion is still happening, and if I'm right its expanding and dumping debris throughout time as it goes"

Luke still didn't understand why is was so excited

"OK but how is that going to help us get home?"

"the explosion is behaving less like an explosion and more like a super nova, its expanding now but when it reaches a certain point its going to collapse back in on itself"

a small ray of hope lit up Luke's face as he realised what i was getting at

"when that happens it will pull us back through with it, back to where we belong, back to mum and K-9" his happiness was short lived as his mind turned up another question "OK then why are you making him take us to England?"

"that's the one problem with this plan Luke, for this to work we are going to have to get close or we will be left behind"

he looked terrified at the thought

"OK then how much time does that leave us?"

i took in the readings i had taken before giving him and answer

"if I'm right about all this, less than 48 hours"

the captain was true to his word and the ship made steady progress all through the night, i couldn't help but notice that the captain would never look at Marcus directly, i think he's a little bit scared of him, and if i'm honest i was a tiny bit scared too. it was a side of himself that Marcus had never shown before, but it didn't last long and we both pitched in keeping the boat afloat, and it wasn't long before i had a good idea what each part of the ship was for. it took about 24 hours before we finally caught sight of England, we were both getting anxious we were running low on time

"there you are Luke, i talked with the captain, he can't take his ship in for obvious reason but he has a little rowboat that will take us ashore"

i smiled to indicate i heard what he said before i brought up what was really on my mind

"were you serious, about what you said to the captain?, about being able to force him to do what you wanted"

he didn't look surprised at my question

"it is within my abilities to do something like that if i wanted to Luke...but if the captain hadn't agreed when he did I'm not sure if i could have brought myself to do it, sorry if i scared you with that little performance"

"don't worry its just sometimes i forget your an alien"

he smiled at that

"I'm a living mood ring and you still have trouble remembering I'm an alien"

his eyes were bright with mischief, i knew he was trying to bait me with that so i decided to let my concerns drop for now

"well I'm still not entirely convinced you are an alien, you could just be a harry potter reject"

his face was ablaze with mock indignation at that

"i have to admit Luke that character did hit quite close to home, maybe JK Rowling caught sight of me when my perception filter was on the fritz"

i laughed at that and with my concerns forgotten, i went back to helping around the ship.

the captain took us ashore personally when we reached our destination and seemed quite glad to be rid of us, once we were out of the boat Marcus turned to him

"here you are captain, as promised" Marcus handed over the ring "that's a very old family heirloom, make sure you get a good price for it"

"i certainly will gentleman, and one more thing gentleman, who exactly are you two"

i exchanged a quick glance with Marcus before answering

"two adventurers just like you"

he seemed content with that answer and pushed his boat back into the water. before he was to far out Marcus called to him

"hey captain whats your name"

the pirates eyes lit up with a certain mischief.

"why you two can call me captain Sparrow" he gave a graceful bow and a flourish of his hat, and then was off back into the waves

our story had just gone from incredible to unbelievable and i couldn't wait to tell mum about this

"Luke come on the energy readings are getting stronger, our train home is getting closer"

i quickly caught up and the two of us ran through the quiet little town, Marcus's scanner said we were getting close hen we ran into another problem

"halt both of you"

the man who stopped us had a pistol aimed at me and several armed men behind him

"pirates are not welcome in this place"

Marcus's scanner beeped telling us that we were running out of time

"sorry but we don't have time for this, Luke close your eyes"

i did as i was told as Marcus pressed a button on his watch and a blinding light shone through my eyelids. when i could open them again we ran, despite the angry protests of the guards we left behind. i was running as fast as i could but my legs were beginning to ache in protest. i thought they were going to fall off when Marcus stopped in front of me

"Luke this is it right here"

i knew he was right, light was already beginning to build

"in 10...9...8"

"stop both of you, that's far enough"

i wheeled around to come face to face with the guards pistol

"wait please i can explain"

he fell for my ruse and lowered his pistol slightly

"3...2...1"

the explosion had knocked the wind out of me when it hit and now this felt like the air was being sucked clean out of my body, i closed my eyes against the light before i finally passed out

"Luke are you alright"

my mum was crouched over me, and i could feel grass underneath me instead of salt water, its good to be back

"yeah mum I'm fine"

"are you sure no broken bones, infection, oh i don't know tropical diseases"

"mum I'm fine promise"

"in that case. Luke Smith what on earth do you think you were doing i specifically told you not to get involved until i arrived!"

i winced when my mum shouted she was angry because i made her worry, and i felt bad for that, even worse because i knew she was probably blaming herself, but i wish sometimes she would let me explain before scolding

"Sarah-Jane" Marcus made a brave step towards my mum in an attempt to calm her down "we didn't mean to get involved without you but if we had waited and they had successfully created a chronon particle the earth would've been in pretty bad shape"

it was a good try but logical arguments didn't phase my mum when she was in a bad mood and she turned on Marcus next

"and you, you have known my son for two weeks and you almost get him killed"

"technically I've known him for longer than that, although some of that time was spent in the past"

I've never seen Marcus scared before, but the glare my mum gave him forced him to retreat and sent streaks of white through his hair, honestly as scary as my mum is its a wonder there are any aliens left brave enough to try and invade her home planet.

"alright mum take it easy Marcus is right if we hadn't interfered and the chronon particle had destabilised the explosion would have destroyed much more than just this warehouse it could have destroyed the earth"

it took a couple of seconds, but eventually she gave up trying to come up with a counter-argument and settled for smiling

"alright you two i guess you did alright on your own, your definitely growing up aren't you Luke"

my mum fixed me with her same old look that told me just how proud she was and it felt just like old times

"Ok so this weekend meeting was a bit of a bust you two, still perhaps we can try again next weekend, give me a proper chance to get to know you marcus"

"yeah sounds good Sarah-Jane"

"so you two what happened to the aliens"

"well they may have got stuck in the past like we almost did"

my mum didn't look to pleased to hear that but she decided that could wait for another day

"if they didn't then they probably ran, chronon particles are a forbidden avenue of research, if the shadow proclamation ever finds out what they tried, they are in serious trouble"

my mum decided that she was satisfied with Marcus's explanation and didn't want to know what happened in the past, and after several hugs and goodbyes to me and K-9 she climbed back into her car and left

once she was out of sight we both piled into my car along with K-9 and started the drive back to uni

"so marcus, what did you think, glad you came with us"

"well i can say one thing for certain, your family outings are never dull"

this teased a grin out of me and we passed the next few miles in a comfortable silence

"another thing i can say for certain is that as parents go yours is pretty good Luke and I'm glad i got a chance to meet her"

"yeah, hopefully the next time you meet them things will be a bit quieter"

a smile flashed across Marcus's face when i said that

"where would be the fun in that Luke"

"indeed young masters life with Sarah-Jane is never dull, this is a universal constant that will never change"

neither of us could tell if K-9 was making a joke or stating a fact but it still had us laughing for several minutes before i tried steering the conversation towards Marcus

"so Marcus do you think I'll ever get a chance to meet your mum and dad"

his eyes turned a deep blue, i knew enough about his people to know that only very strong emotions spread to their eyes, and from the look on his face i think he was feeling sad

"for your sake Luke i hope you never have to meet them"

his last words were whispered so quietly I'm not sure if i was supposed to hear them, i wonder what he meant by that but decided not to push the issue.

when we finally got back to the university we said a couple of quick goodbyes and went our separate ways, i thought after an adventure like ours i would sleep like a log, but i kept going over what Marcus said in my mind until i finally drifted off.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"captain should we pursue Sarah-Jane or the two boys?"

the young soldier directed his question towards his commanding officer, a stern looking man who had a great air of authority about him

"no we have nothing concrete for now, give the orders to return to UNIT HQ, i will give my report then"

"yes sir"


	3. The Female of the Species

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke's first party is almost his last when he attracts the attention of a deadly creature of myth

"arghh human off the port bow"

Marcus had jumped up on the wall behind Luke and was doing his best pirate impression

"Marcus we spent barely 24 hours with pirates in the past, how long are you going to keep up the pirate act?"

he flashed Luke a cheeky grin before jumping down

"as long as i can, but anyway i didn't come to find you just to wind you up with my terrible pirate impressions, we have been invited to a party"

Luke looked confused at that

"what party?"

"well Mitch a guy from one of my lectures...i forget which one, anyway he has finally proposed to his girlfriend Beverley and they have invited just about everyone from our course to a celebration party"

"but I'm not on your course"

"yeah i know that but i asked if you could come along, if you want to"

Luke didn't look to pleased with this

"i don't know Marcus"

Marcus fixed Luke with a determined stare

"normally I'd leave this up to you Luke but in this case i think what you need is a shove in the right direction, so we're meeting at the club, if you aren't there by eight i will come and get you"

before Luke could manage another word Marcus disappeared off in the direction of his room. maybe Marcus was right, maybe it was time to be more adventurous. after about and hour Luke realised K-9 was of very limited help picking out something to wear so Luke ended up calling Rani for advice. after about another hour he finally felt ready to face the party.

"I'll be back later K-9, and make sure you don't answer the door this time unless its me or Marcus"

"i apologise master Luke it will not happen again"

"alright good dog"

it took Luke a few minutes to cross campus and find the party when he did it sounded like the party was in full swing inside

"ah there you are Luke, i was just about to come and get you"

Luke couldn't help but be impressed, normally Marcus looked casual to an extreme but it seemed tonight he had put in some effort to look smart

"not bad Luke, let me guess maria, no Rani, which one did you end up calling"

Luke shot him a playful glare at that

"and what about you, looking smart is almost an alien concept to you normally"

Luke stressed the word alien and Marcus held up his hands in mock surrender

"OK you win, now come on lets go introduce you to the happy couple"

Luke felt a bit apprehensive about this, but Marcus pulled him through the crowd to introduce him to his friends

"ah Marcus there you are, and this must be your friend Luke"

Luke took a quick glance at Marcus and saw streaks of colour flash through his hair, clearly Mitch's excitement was contagious

"Bev's around here somewhere make sure you say high, and Marcus thanks for your advice"

Mitch quickly disappeared to find his fiance, and Marcus silently slipped away. Luke moved slowly through the crowd chatting to a few people he recognised before he found his friend again

"what advice did you give him?"

Marcus was smiling and looked incredibly pleased with himself

"well i could sense enough about them to know what was going on in their heads so i may have pushed Mitch in the right direction"

Luke looked torn between amusement and annoyance

"i know Luke, i know i shouldn't have interfered, but being an empath stuck between those two was driving me crazy, and i don't see the harm in pointing them in the right direction"

"yeah i know, although i might start calling you cupid if you keep it up"

Marcus looked annoyed for about half a second and then he got an evil look in his eyes

"oh there you are Bev, this is my friend Luke"

she had weaved her way across the dance-floor to speak to them

"oh yeah its good to see you two, you know i keep saying that you two don't get out nearly enough"

"well we are here now, and i think Luke here could do with a dance"

before Luke could object Marcus had pushed him forwards and he was pulled onto the dance floor by Bev. it took Luke about 10 minutes to escape from her, and Marcus spent the whole time doubled over with laughter.

"i am not forgiving you for that"

"I'd almost believe you kiddo if you weren't grinning ear to ear the whole time you were dancing"

settling for a playful glare Luke grabbed a drink and they both sat down and watched the party go by

"hey Marcus have you seen Mitch?, he was supposed to give a speech but i can't find him"

"no i haven't bev i figured he was with you, don't worry about it we'll find him"

they both split up to find Mitch, after about a few minutes they found him in the corner near the restrooms, what they weren't expecting was to find him kissing another girl

"oh, what do we do"

Marcus was about to respond when he hunched over clutching his head

"we help him, she's hurting him,ahh!"

Marcus could barely stand so Luke rushed over and tried to pull the strange woman off of Mitch, but when he grabbed her, she turned to water and slipped away from him before reforming

"well aren't you a cutie, but I'm afraid i have to go"

she quickly disappeared out of the club with Luke hot on her trail

"Luke wait!"

Marcus paused quickly to check on Mitch

"bev call an ambulance, i've got to go after Luke"

chasing Luke out of the club he quickly found him, he had the strange woman cornered

"who are you?"

"i don't really have a name little boy but you may call me Serena"

"Luke be careful she's dangerous"

"oh you have no idea, I'll be in touch"

before either boy could stop here she turned to water and disappeared into the drain

"what was she"

for once Marcus really had no idea. they checked in with Mitch, he had been checked into hospital and was unconscious, showing no signs of waking

"hey bev hows he doing"

"oh hey boys, the doctor says he's going to be OK, he's suffering from extreme dehydration but the doctors can't explain how it happened, did you catch that woman"

Marcusshook his head and they sat in silence for a few minutes, after telling bev to ring them if she needed anything they left, to try and figure out who Serena really is

"so what are you thinking Marcus, any more ideas?"

"none, there are at least a dozen alien species i know that are capable of draining the moisture from a human being and a fair few that can alter their shape, we need to narrow it down"

"well this might help"

Luke held up a small test tube with blood in it

"Luke you are full of surprises"

the two of them quickly set to work once back in Luke's room they used K-9 and Marcus's scanner to try and find out what they could.

"well that's interesting, here Luke check this out"

they had found a strange compound in his blood

"its like a pheromone, and Mitch's blood is full of the stuff"

Marcus looked quite worried

"i know what species Serena is, she's a hydroform"

"OK and what is a hydroform"

"they're an alien species that live on a planet almost completely covered in water, they use a sort of pheromones as a defense mechanism, they bliss out anything that tries to hurt them"

"and what is she doing here, and why did she attack Mitch"

"her species can't hold a solid form, they need to return to the water after a while"

"and the oceans on this planet are salt water, if she has to go back to ocean she'll become dehydrated each time, so she's draining the water from people to re-hydrate"

"what should we do next?"

"hmm, Luke you take K-9 with you, we should try and help her, but if we can't i want to have a way to stop her, do you think you can modify K-9's laser for some extra heat?"

"yeah i have a friend in the electronics store down the road he can give me some of the components i need"

"excellent, meanwhile i am going to do a little investigating of my own, she passed over a lot of people before she picked Mitch, i want to know why, so you two get started, and I'll take this blood sample down to the science labs"

"got it, come one K-9"

"coming master"

after splitting up Marcus made his way quickly down to the science lab. what he found made him decidedly uneasy

"that witch the pheromones are reacting with the hormones in Mitch's blood, she's going after people in love"

he felt fairly certain that Luke should be safe from the full effect, that also gave him an idea for luring her. pulling out his phone he quickly flicked through to Luke's number and after a few rings it connected.

"hey Luke are you finished yet i have an idea"

"Marcus, master Luke is currently locating a last component"

something about that didn't sit well with him

"K-9 how long has Luke been gone?"

 

"currently 8 minutes"

now he new something was wrong

"K-9 something isn't right, go and find Luke i think he's in trouble"

"affirmative"

by the time he found K-9 Marcus's fears were confirmed Luke was nowhere to be found

"dammit alright think, think, think where would she take him"

"Marcus do you have a sample of the aliens pheromone i believe i can use it to track her"

crouching down next to K-9 Marcus gave him the pheromone sample he had extracted

"source located, this way"

"you know your a bit young for my tastes, but there are some advantages to a younger man"

Serena was slowly leading Luke into the shadows, and he knew he should be afraid but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to be worried

"for what its worth I'm sorry about this it seems a shame for someone so young but, oh well"

"wait Serena please, we can help you, we could help you get back to your world"

"but why would i want to, they'd only arrest me"

satisfied with her hiding place Serena leaned in to kiss Luke

Marcus was running as fast as he could following the trail that K-9 was doing his best to follow, it was all he could do not to let his panic overwhelm him, the same though running through his head, how could i let this happen

"K-9 which way!"

"insufficient data"

"no, no, no where are they?"

he got the answer to his question sooner than he was expecting as a searing pain ripped through his mind. almost getting the better of him for a second he quickly focused in on the source, Luke

"K-9 this way"

the two of them moved as fast as they could, they knew Luke only had minutes at most, they rounded a corner and saw Serena and Luke in an intimate but fatal embrace,  
as Serena slowly drained all the moisture from Luke's body

"K-9 now!"

the reconfigurations Luke had made to K-9 worked and steam billowed from Serena's body wherever his laser struck her, and she let Luke drop to the floor, she stumbled for a moment and turned to Marcus a look of shame on her face

"wait please i was only doing what i needed to do, to survive, you would have done the same"

her begging stirred Marcus for a second, and in that split second of indecision she made a move to attack him, but K-9 laser blazed again one final time and Serena evaporated into steam. not wasting any time Marcus dropped to his knees beside Luke to check his pulse, it was worryingly weak, making a snap decision Marcus pulled out his phone and punched in 999

"Marcus what are you doing, master Luke cannot go to hospital they will..."

"I know K-9!, but he's in trouble right now, and i can't help him on my own, we have to do this otherwise he'll die"

K-9's light seemed to dim at that thought

"i need an ambulance, just outside of Hammonds electronic store, yes that's right, he's been severely Dehydrated, yes the same thing as the other cases, yes I'm trying to get him drink as much as i can, OK thank you"

Marcus put his phone down and tried his best to get Luke to drink some of the water they'd brought with them, but it wasn't having much effect

"K-9 contact Sarah-Jane and Mr Smith warn them whats happening, we need to give them a chance to intercept any medical information about Luke"

"affirmative Marcus"

the ambulance sirens preceded it by about a minute, when it arrived Marcus let the paramedics take over and after climbing in next to Luke, reached out with his mind to try and help Luke in anyway he could. it was a short ride but each minute felt like an hour, when they finally arrived he took a step back and let the doctors and nurses do what they did best. it was the early hours of the morning when Sarah-Jane arrived

"Sarah-Jane I'm sor..."

Marcus was cut off midway through his apology as Sarah-Jane pulled him into a gentle hug

"its OK Marcus, you did the right thing, thank you for being there for him"

Marcus couldn't help but be amazed most parents would've lashed out at him for letting their child get hurt, but despite the fear and anxiety he was sensing from her she was still strong enough to put on a brave face. Luke really was lucky

"so what happened?"

they both talked for a while, Marcus explained their investigation and their dealings with Serena. once the doctors were satisfied that Luke's condition was stable they were allowed to sit with him. he looked quite peaceful while asleep.

"one thing i don't understand you said Serena's victims were affected by her pheromones so strongly because they were in love"

"well yeah I'm not sure either, perhaps Luke is holding out on both of us"

they both shared a light chuckle at that. the doctor came in once more and shared a few words with Sarah-Jane. Marcus slowly drifted off to sleep, Sarah-Jane could imagine the night they'd had, she'd had a few nights like that when adventuring with the Doctor. she knew she should probably be angry at them but Luke was growing up and she knew that, and like every parent she needed to let go. brushing a strand of hair out of her sons face he took a sip of her tea and got comfy in her chair

"miss Smith i need to have a word with you I'm afraid its quite urgent"

the man that stepped into the hospital room was decked out in military attire and had a serious look on his face

"who are you?"

"i am captain cutter head of UNIT special investigations"

Sarah-Jane's body language went from cautious to full blown aggression when she heard those words, she knew why this man was here

"and what exactly do you need to talk to Sarah-Jane about"

Marcus had woken up and was looking equally angered by the captains presence

"I'm afraid Sarah-Jane that your friend sir Alistair failed to keep your secret from us, we have identified that boy as an alien bi-product and we are taking him into custody, to prevent any further threat to the earth"

Marcus could sense the maelstrom of emotions hidden behind Sarah-Jane's calm exterior. but couldn't help admire her ability to keep calm under pressure

"well that's very nice Captain but I'm afraid the only people in this ward are my son and his friend and neither are going anywhere with you"

the captain took a moment to measure his options before taking a step backwards and opening the blinds in Luke's hospital room. stood in the corridor were half a dozen of the captains men.

"i think my position is clear Sarah-Jane I'm taking the boy"

the captain made sure his firearm was clearly visible as he spoke. Marcus could sense Sarah-Jane's panic as she scrambled to come up with a plan to save Luke. the man seemed quite sure of his position and quite calm, not a shred of remorse to be sensed this made Marcus angry, this stupid little man was threatening Luke and his makeshift family, that made him just angry enough to do something he would never normally do. reaching deep into his mind he felt for the darker side of his personality and then shattered the chains that held his hatred in place and deactivated his perception filter. all attention was drawn to him and before the captain could reach for his firearm Marcus had his arm in a vice like grip and pinned the man against the door. Sarah-Jane could see the change in him, his hair was pitch black and his eyes had a truly terrifying glint in them.

"now you listen to me little man you have know idea what you're dealing with"

to prove his point Marcus reached into the captains mind and the minds of the soldiers outside and dragged up every fear from every dark corner of their minds and surrounded them with their darkest nightmares.

"you are not going to raise a hand against Luke, he is my friend and i will not let you hurt him"

Marcus was speaking in barely a whisper but to the men under his power his voice had a truly terrible quality and echoed through their minds like a giant

"now if you or your men ever come near Luke again i will send every emotion of every person within a hundred miles raging through your minds until you and your men are nothing but burned out husks, do you understand me!"

the captain didn't respond but when Marcus released him, he half marched half ran out of the hospital not daring a second look behind them

"well"

Sarah Jane wasn't sure what else to say, she watched as Marcus slowly returned to normal, and couldn't help noticing how drained he looked. no one spoke for a few minutes, Marcus didn't look like he was willing to to speak. and so Sarah-Jane just let him sit in silence for a moment.

"do you think the captain will come after him again Marcus"

Marcus looked thoughtful for a moment before he responded

"i don't know for certain if UNIT will stay away from Luke, but i know those men won't come within a hundred miles of Luke or me ever again"

"I'm glad to know Luke has someone their to look after him when I'm not around"

Marcus gave her a grateful smile and seemed quite glad she didn't enquire into what he did to the guards, it was probably better she didn't know

"mum, what are you doing here, and why does my throat hurt?"

"oh Luke your awake!"

the Smiths seemed happy for a moment so Marcus decided to leave them to it and got some fresh air outside, he needed to clear his head and get his emotions back in check. when he returned the doctor was satisfied with Luke's recovery and signed him out

"I'm sorry i made you worry mum"

"oh don't worry Luke something tells me this won't be my last trip to casualty after one of your investigations, but the two of you had this under control more or less"

"mum, what are we going to do about UNIT?"

Sarah Jane looked concerned, but now that Luke was alright she had regained her former confidence

"let me worry about unit boys, you two just keep living your lives"

neither boy said anything but both of them didn't envy the trouble that UNIT was likely to get from Sarah-Jane

"although if you could both do me a favor and try and keep a low profile that would probably help"

Sarah-Jane dropped them both back at uni before heading home. after checking in with Beverley and Mitch they grabbed some drinks and sat themselves down in Luke's room so Marcus could explain what happened when Luke was unconscious

"so Serena caught me"

"she did indeed Luke which means you are keeping a secret"

Marcus took a playful poke into Luke's emotions, but Luke shut him out before he could find anything

"very good Luke your getting better at that, but I'm still curious"

Luke crossed his arms and gave fixed Marcus with a very stubborn look

"OK i won't pry...for now"

this earned Marcus a pillow to the face

"one thing mum wouldn't explain to me Marcus, why didn't unit take me, why did they leave"

Marcus sighed at this he knew he would have to explain

"i scared them Luke, they saw all the dark emotions that i normally keep in the back of my mind, all my anger and all my hatred, and then for good measure i turned their fears against them"

"kind of like what the nightmare man did to me"

Marcus realised where Luke had been leading him and couldn't blame him for being worried, he needed a better explanation

"the difference between him and me is that i would never do that Luke, your are the only real friend i have on this planet and i would be a fool to ruin that by trying to mess with your emotions"

Luke looked happy with that answer

"you must have been pretty scary"

Marcus felt quite pleased with that

"yeah well that guy deserved it he made it far to easy to hate him, anyway i don't know about you but I'm approaching 24 hours without sleep so I'm headed back to my room and refuse to surface for at least two days"

Luke grinned at that

"you really are embracing being a human student aren't you"

"definitely"  
"night Marcus"

"night Luke"

"his perception filter is back in place but we managed to narrow his location down to england, earth, how should we proceed"

"we have many tricks for flashing rats out of the sewers go with the wormwood stratagem"

"very good commander"


	4. Luke the Hero

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Never underestimate a guy with a metal dog

"K-9 is being less guard dog and more nanny at the minute, if he makes me drink much more water I'm going to drown"

"aww he's just looking after you, now Luke K-9 aside is there something you want to talk about i mean its got to be about midnight where you are, I'm guessing this isn't just a catch up chat"

maria knew me to well

"i just, i don't know, i feel like such a screw-up"

i could almost hear maria roll her eyes at that

"Luke you are not a screw-up, whats making you think that"

"when i decided to come to university i wanted to become more independent, prove that i could do some stuff on my own, but it feels like I've traded mum looking after me for Marcus looking after me"

"its not such a bad thing luke, everyone needs help from time to time, even the doctor couldn't do what we do on his own"

"i know. i just wish i could prove that I'm not a kid, that i can do this on my own"

"Luke you're doing fine on your own so don't worry, and I'm sure Marcus doesn't think you're a kid"

she let that hang for a second

"alright Luke I've got to go, get some sleep, and don't worry about this OK you've come a long way from when we first met"

"OK thanks Maria"

maybe she was right. I'm just being silly about all this, time for sleep.

i couldn't have been asleep for very long when the buzzing of my phone woke me up, it was a text message from Marcus it said one word

"help"

i didn't know what was going on, i pulled on some clothes and ran out my door and out of the building. it took me less than five minutes to get to Marcus's room

"Marcus its me"

he didn't answer i wasn't sure what was wrong. then i got knocked off my feet by a tidal wave of emotion. it receded as quickly as it came, i almost blacked out for a second. i brushed it off got to my feet and pushed open the door

"Marcus where are you"

a small noise was my only clue that he was there, stepping further into the room i found him crouched in the corner of his room clutching his head

"whats wrong"

before he could reply another wave of emotion hit me, i was more prepared this time and used what he had taught me to protect my mind

"Luke somethings wrong, i can't stop, i can feel everything around me, its too much"

"OK what can i do"

"i don't know"

he was struggling to talk, i could tell he was trying to hold back everything he could feel the effort was visible on his face, i needed to help

"OK Marcus I know you can enter my mind, but can you let me into your mind, i can help you hold back what you're sensing"

"no its to dangerous"

"never stopped us before, now let me try"

"OK"

the second we were connected i found myself in a room. across from Marcus. everything seemed calm for a second then the windows of the room exploded inwards and streams of fire and light ripped most of the walls apart. i took everything but i slowly rebuilt the walls of the room and made steel shutters close over the windows.

"not bad Luke"

the second he was done talking i was thrown back into my own mind. Marcus was crouched in the corner but his eyes were more focused and there was less strain on his face

"i didn't honestly think you could pull that off"

"well I'm not sure if i can keep it up"

i could still feel the fire barely held at bay

"alright then we need to act fast, i know whats causing this, taxin poison"

"what is it"

"a poison developed on my home world, they must have dumped it into the water supply"

"OK then why isn't affecting everyone, and why would someone poison you"

"because everyone isn't me Luke its designed to specifically to target my species, and if someone from my world tracked me to earth they can use the poison to find me"

"with all those emotions flowing through your head it would be easy for someone from your world to sense you"

"exactly, poison the water section by section eventually it will find its way to me"

"but i still don't get it, why would someone go to all this trouble to find you"

"they have their reasons. now you've bought me some time but there's a problem, i don't think all the stuff i need for the antidote exists on earth"

"maybe mum has something we can use, she has lots of spare alien technology"

"there's not enough time, there's only one place i can think of that has the antidote

"the people who are looking for you"

"yep they use the poison to flush me out, but its slow working so ultimately, they want me alive"

"OK how do we get it from them"

"we set a trap, with me as bait"

"you can't be serious"

"i don't see a lot of options Luke, the poison will kill me, and its effects are only going to get stronger the longer we wait, the greater the risk we need to do this quickly"

"alright lets do it"

he explained his plan on the way back to fetch K-9, he knew a decent spot where we could set a trap, once there me and K-9 would wait until the kidnappers came then we would force them to cure Marcus, i didn't like this, there was so much that could go wrong. Marcus led us to the place and we quickly took up our positions.

"Marcus are you sure about this?"

"not really but i don't know what else to do"

at his signal i stopped helping hold back what he could feel. the change was pretty instant, he collapsed to the floor clutching his head again, i hoped whoever did this would show up quickly. it took them about half an hour to find us

"i can sense him, he's in here"

the voice came from just outside the door. i told K-9 to get ready, as a woman and four of her men walked into the room

"ah there you are young prince we've been looking for you"

something tells me there were several responses he wanted to make to that, but he could barely manage to sit up, and why did she call him a prince

"oh not so talkative, shame, you've led the alliance on a long hunt, but it looks like we have finally trapped our prey"

"maybe the prey trapped you"

i stepped out of my hiding place as he talked. her men drew their weapons, but K-9's laser was too fast and four weapons dropped to the floor in pieces

"oh very good, i was worried this was going to be to easy, you called on a human to rescue you"

"you've poisoned my friend, give him the antidote, now!"

"demands can only be made by the player holding all the cards little human, i don't need weapons to kill you"

Marcus had warned me about this. she reached into my mind and i could feel arrogance and superiority radiating from her. concentrating i closed up my mind and her attempts to get in my head were stopped dead, i couldn't help but smile when i saw the look of shock on her face

"you taught your pets a few tricks Marcus, but i still hold the cards"

"but why are you trying to take him, and why go to all this trouble just to get Marcus"

"oh it appears that you're 'friend' has been keeping secrets from you little human"

i looked at Marcus who couldn't seem to look me in the eye

"anyway we are taking him and no lowly human is going to stop us"

she pulled out a strange device and attached it to Marcus, before i could tell K-9 to stop her she activated it, and they disappeared, leaving me and K-9 alone

"K-9 what happened how did they do that"

"device was a focusing point for a transmat beam, likely scenario, Marcus has been taken aboard their ship"

this was all my fault, i knew this was a bad plan, i should have said something

"alright K-9 make a scan of the entire are, enough data so that Mr Smith can track the transmat back to their ship"

"affirmative young master, scanning, scan complete"

"alright come on, we have to act fast"

trying to fend off all the fears flashing through my mind i ran back to Marcus's room, lucky for me he'd left his scanner in his room. putting it in my pocket, i activated his computer. now we needed Mr Smith

"Luke what a pleasant surprise, I'm afraid Sarah-Jane isn't here right now, would you like me to take a message?"

"actually Mr Smith its you i need, K-9 is sending you over some data, taken from an area where a transmat beam was used, can you trace it back to wherever it came from"

"accessing, coordinates confirmed, transmat source is a spaceship in steady orbit above the earth"

"i knew it, alright Mr Smith i need to get on that ship can you activate the transmat beam remotely"

"i can, but may i ask why you want me to do this, this course of action is highly irregular"

"Marcus has been kidnapped, he's aboard that ship, i need to get up there and rescue him"

"i understand Luke but I'm afraid i can only help you get up to the ship, i won't have enough power to get you back"

"i know, don't worry i have a plan, now please Mr Smith can you do this"

"very well but Sarah-Jane is not going to approve of this course of action Luke"

"i know Mr Smith, don't worry, and if i haven't called you by the time mum gets back you can tell her everything"

"very well, accessing transmat"

I'm really beginning to hate being teleported, fighting off a wave of nausea i flipped open Marcus's scanner, i wasn't to far away, they were all in one place, good that will give me some time to do what i needed, turning to the nearest console i turned it on and got to work. once i was finished it took a few minutes and several wrong turns before i finally found them, they were standing around Marcus who was laid on a table, by the looks of it they were administering the antidote, i waited until they were finished before stepping out of the shadows

"ah we were wondering when you were going to show yourself human, i thought for a moment you were going to turn tail and run, i must say I'm impressed you made it aboard my ship"

it was the same woman from before i still didn't like her

"now as impressed as i am I'm afraid i don't tolerate vermin aboard my ship"

i was waiting for this, before she could reach for her weapon i put my plan to work

"computer voice code 000"

"command confirmed, electro dampening field active"

i couldn't help but feel a little bit pleased with myself, especially when i saw the look on her face

"you little brat you hacked my ship"

"yes i did, it was quite easy actually once Marcus's scanner translated your language for me, and I'm far from done, computer voice code doomsday"

"command confirmed, auto destruct initiated"

the look on her face changed from anger to fury faster than i could see and her eyes turned black

"now here's my deal you and your men get into an escape pod and I'll give you the launch codes, which i changed by the way, or we can all stay here and die"

"nice try little human, but i don't need weapons to kill you, now deactivate the self destruct or i will kill you with my bare hands"

"i can't even if i wanted to, i set the codes to randomize every ten seconds"

"your bluffing little human"

"one i still don't know how to bluff and two your an empath, see for yourself"

she concentrated on my emotions for a moment and i let her see just enough to know i was telling the truth

"your transmat won't work either, so I'd do as i say cause we only have about eight minutes left"

once she realised i wasn't bluffing she dropped her anger and tried a different tactic

"wait human please, there is a war on our planet this you know,if we take him back with us we can end the war"

"maybe, but he's my friend and i can't just let you take him, it has to be his choice"

realising her position she gave a few non-verbal commands and her men followed her into and escape pod

"you can't keep us from him forever human"

deciding to ignore her i punched in the activation code and then turned and ran back towards Marcus

"warning 5 minutes remaining"

"computer voice code 001"

"command confirmed transmat activate"

the time it took for me to focus the transmat seemed painfully long, once myself and Marcus were logged into the system, i focused the coordinates towards earth.

"warning 2 minutes remaining"

i was sweating now, the transmat was slowly aligning with the coordinates i gave it.

"warning one minute remaining"

"coordinates confirmed activating"

this was my third time being telported, and it was just as unpleasant as the last, for a second there was nothing around me, and the next my legs made contact with the ground and buckled beneath me. Marcus wasn't anywhere close and for a second i thought he was still on the ship, but i caught sight of him a few metres away. giving up on standing for the moment i crawled my way over to him, and gave him a few light shoves trying to wake him up.

"oh my head"

it wasn't much more than a confused slur of words, but i was satisfied that my job was done and collapsed next to him, looking up at the sky

"Luke?"

"yeah"

"where are we?"

"not sure"

i had a quick look around at that and tried to get my bearings, with little success

"Luke?"

"yeah"

"what happened to my would be kidnappers"

"i stopped them and then ejected them in an escape pod"

"oh good"

there was another pause in the conversation and i was quite content to watch the clouds go by

"Luke"

"yeah"

"what happened to their ship"

i pointed up in the sky to answer his question and was met with a blaze of deep purple light followed by a shower of debris that burnt up in the atmosphere, it was quite beautiful in a way

"not a bad job Luke, although we are supposed to be keeping a low profile"

he made me laugh with that and soon he was joining in

"thanks for coming to save me hero"

"you're welcome, now i suggest we both try and get up and figure out where we are"

"OK"

i ended up having to support Marcus once he was on his feet, clearly poison and teleportation left him pretty exhausted. it was about 3 hours before we managed to get home, in my hurry to get us off the ship i missed London by about fifty miles, and when we got home i dumped Marcus on my bed and collapsed into my computer chair

"K-9 can you do a scan of Marcus, make sure he doesn't have any poison left in his system"

"yes master Luke, scanning, no trace of poison in Marcus's body just heightened levels of fatigue"

"thanks K-9 good dog"

"alright then hero, if you can get me on my feet I'll go back to my room and sleep off today's excitement"

"forget it you can barely stand and I'm to tired to get you back to your room, just sleep there, I've got a blow-up mattress around here somewhere, I'll sleep on that"

he looked like he was about to object for half a second then let his head hit the pillow and grunted his approval, after a few seconds i got up to sort out my bed and once it was ready curled up under the covers and almost fell asleep right away, but i needed to fight off sleep for at least a few more minutes, there were a few questions i needed to ask him

"Marcus you still awake?"

"just about"

"what did that woman mean when she called you a prince, she said you were keeping a lot of secrets"

he knew that question was coming i thought for a second he might not answer

"she was part of the alliance that is trying to change my world, an alliance to put an end to the reign of my father, the king of solaris"

"so you are a prince?"

"yep, my fathers only son"

"then why did you really run away"

"i was leverage as simple as that, i didn't no what to do, caught in the middle of a war, so i ran"

there was a lot of anger and resentment in his voice when he said that

"I'm sorry for bringing this up it isn't really my business"

"you're right it isn't!"

there was silence between us after that, i could feel the emotions he was trying to hold back, they were boiling just beneath the surface, i should've let him get some sleep before i talked to him

"I'm sorry Luke, I didn't mean to snap, I'm a guest on your planet, i answer to you, if you have any more questions I'll answer them, but i think that's the major stuff out of the way"

i took his apology for what it was and decided to steer the conversation in a more cheerful direction

"finding out your friend is royalty is a pretty hard secret to top"

that made him grin

"i dunno i have a few more interesting secrets to tell"

"oh really like what?"

"no not before you give up a few secrets of your own, romeo"

i fell right into that but crossed my arms defiantly, that was a secret that i didn't want anyone to know about just yet

"oh come on Luke it only seems fair"

"no, besides my secrets don't get me kidnapped"

"yeah, yours just get you snogged to death by an alien seductress"

he started laughing at the look on my face, and i felt a blush creep up my face, that only made him laugh harder

"alright time for sleep hero, I'm probably going to need rescuing again before breakfast, so get some rest"

"why are there more kidnappers coming?"

"it was a joke Luke"

"oh, night then"

i did have a few more questions, but they could wait, for now i know that i can trust him that's enough to let me get some sleep.


	5. Never trust a thief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When is a meteor not a meteor

"so the alliance wants to end the monarchy on your world, put more decisions in the hands of the people"

"yeah, to be honest i think they have the right idea, our world hasn't progressed as much as it used to, maybe it needs to change"

"but your father wouldn't let them change"

"yeah, I'm still not certain on what sparked the war, but there was so much conflict already there, that once it started it spread like wildfire"

"do you think its still going"

"well i know how stubborn my dad is, so probably, anyway on to more cheerful topics, why are we lugging all this camera equipment up to the roof"

i felt pretty cheeky that he was carrying the lions share of the equipment

"there an asteroid cloud passing right past our planet in less than two hours, its going to look amazing so i decided to make it part of one of my projects which means if i don't get decent pictures I'm in trouble"

"oh so why am i here"

"because after all the help I've given you on your assignments you owe me"

he looked like he was about to argue that point for a second, but he knew i was right. it took us the best part of an hour to get all of the equipment up onto the roof of my building, and about half an hour to set it up, once ready we sat back and waited. it was quite peaceful and neither of us wanted to disturb the silence so we just sat back and waited

"you know i think i might have seen these asteroids before, they came past my world a few days before my birthday"

"really?"

"yeah, if this is the same asteroid cloud we're in for quite a show"

"what was it like"

"there's no point asking me now you'll see for yourself in a minute"

we waited for a few minutes and sure enough the first asteroids began to burn in the sky. i almost forgot to switch on my cameras, as the rocks glided past the upper atmosphere they burned in brilliant flashes of colour more than i could count

"its amazing, where are those colours coming from"

"gas trapped inside the asteroids, as the asteroids break up, the gas is released and ignites, its just like i remember"

we watched until the last of the asteroids flew past

"alright time to lug this stuff back downstairs, i hope you got some good shots"

"yeah i did, but i don't think i we should go just yet, look"

i could see one last asteroid burning in the sky brighter than the rest i removed the camera from its stand to get the best shot

"uh Luke, is it me or is that asteroid coming in a bit steep"

i looked up from my camera, he was right, the asteroid was falling through the sky, right towards us

"Luke run!"

we both dashed for the stairs. we made it barely down one floor when the whole building shook and we were both thrown to the floor

"Marcus you alright?"

"i think so"

"come on then"

without waiting i dashed up to the roof, it was a mess, but mostly intact, it looks like the asteroid had just scraped across the surface, destroying most of my cameras in the process

"for what its worth Luke i think this will qualify for extenuating circumstances"

"well i still have one of my cameras, but I'm not sure if the university insurance covers meteor strikes"

there was an explosion behind us

"ah that will be our runaway meteor, shall we go have a look"

without a flash of hesitation we made our way back down the stairs offering a few explanations as we went to people who were woken up by the near collision. once down on the streets we started up my car and followed the path of destruction the meteor had caused. after about ten minutes of driving we found the crash site, in the middle of the local park

"is it just me or is our asteroid looking less like an asteroid Luke"

he was right, the object in the crater was roughly circular and had a metallic sheen that glistened despite the damage caused by the crash

"how cool is this, our first asteroid is a spaceship, its like a two for one deal"

"i know, what kind of ship is that"

before he could answer the side of the ship released a hiss of steam and slowly opened.

"well, wasn't quite the landing i had in mind"

the woman that stepped out of the ship was tall and elegant, she slowly walked up the side of the crater towards us

"oh hello it appears my landing caught some attention, i guess that's what i get for showing off"

"wait you mean you hit the building on purpose, it was a miracle no one was hurt"

i couldn't believe someone could be so reckless

"oh that wasn't a miracle, that was skill, although i have to admit i didn't mean to hit the building"

Marcus had been oddly silent, but stepped forwards to look the woman in the eyes

"who are you, alien obviously, why are you here"

i realised why he was so worried, he wanted to know if she was a Solaran

"oh aren't you two cute, i thought most people on this world didn't know much about aliens"

"we aren't most people, but i think the spaceship is a pretty clear sign to just about anyone"

she turned to look back at her ship

"i suppose you right"

without warning she pulled a small device out of her pocket and pressed the button. her ship exploded behind us

"there now even to the trained eye its nothing more than space debris, shall we go then boys, my image translator is low on power and something tells me I'm more alien than most people can handle"

she sauntered off towards my car, leaving the pair of us lost for words, Marcus recovered first

"who are you"

she considered him for a moment

"good question, one with a fair few answers, but for now you can call me Mara, now are we going"

her image translator flickered at that point revealing a decidedly alien form underneath deep blue skin and an almost feline face

"Marcus we should probably get her out of sight we don't want to get any unwanted attention from UNIT"

"agreed, i can't sense much from her but i don't think she's dangerous"

i couldn't believe the situation but we both ran back to my car Mara easily keeping pace

"oh is this your car, shame i was hoping for something a bit more stylish"

"yeah well its my car, if you don't like it you can walk"

"oh well i guess it will do"

without another word she slipped into the car and relaxed into the backseats

"where should we take her?"

"I'm thinking back to the university for now, we can contact Mr Smith from there and figure out who she is"

"is it me Luke or are you a bit eager to be taking her back to your room"

i can't believe him sometimes, shooting him and evil look i got into the drivers seat and started the car. it took us a little bit longer to get home, people had been drawn from close by to take a look at the remains of Mara's ship. it was mostly uneventful until we saw the UNIT sirens coming from the opposite direction

"why are you two looking so worried, I've heard of those chaps, not much danger unless your an alien"

she looked at both of us carefully for a moment

"oh i see, you two really aren't most people are you"

i let out the breath i didn't realise i was holding when the UNIT cars passed us by. the rest of the drive was a lot easier and we made it across campus without much trouble when i finally closed my door behind me i let out a sigh of relief

"well now you have me boys, what are you going to do with me"

she had relaxed into my computer chair not a shred of concern on her face

"K-9 keep an eye on her"

"affirmative master"

"oh you don't trust me"

"not as far as we can throw you lady, now we know your name but why are you here"

"oh very well, my name is Mara as you know, but to a Solaran like you I'm known as the faceless one"

Marcus relaxed at that, clearly she wasn't the threat he thought she was

"you are the one that stole the crown from the king of Solaris"

"so you're a thief"

i had stayed silent for a little while but it was late and I'm getting tired of her dancing around our questions

"well thief is a bit of a simple term for what i am but yes"

"oh my god that day was brilliant, the fake crown that you swapped in, melting all over the kings head, you should have seen him, i took weeks to get that stuff off i don't think I've ever laughed so hard in all my life"

i relaxed a bit, clearly she wasn't much of a threat to us

"why do they call you the faceless one"

"on a planet full of mind readers, sneaking in and out should be impossible and yet here i stand"

"so Mara, down to business, why are you here"

she didn't like that question not one bit it earned Marcus a steely glare

"well if you must know, I'm on the run, after returning the crown i got caught by some rather angry Judoon"

"wait you returned the crown?"

"of course, i don't steal for money, i have more than enough of that, i steal for fun, for the excitement for the chase"

this is going to be one of those days

"but you're a fugitive and its the Judoon that are hunting you?"

"unfortunately yes, i can't believe this, never been caught not once, and now I'm on the run"

"Marcus this is bad, I've met the Judoon before, if they find out we're harboring a wanted fugitive we're in serious trouble, what should we do"

he closed his eyes for a second trying to decide what to do, before a huge yawn decided for him

"sleep, sleep is exactly what we should do, i have know idea what we should do about her but it will be easier to come up with a plan after a decent nights sleep"

i was about to object but then i realised just how tired i was

"excellent idea boys, now this room is hardly what I'm used to but it will do. but where will you two sleep?"

i really can't believe this

"on my bed, you can have the blow up mattress, there's just enough room for you on the bathroom floor"

i was pleased to see a look of indignation on her face at that, clearly she wasn't happy about being treated like this

"you can't be serious?"

"the alternative is sleeping outside"

Marcus was doing a poor job of containing his amusement, streaks of bright gold were flashing through his hair

"well I'm going to leave you two lovebirds to it, see you in the morning"

after Marcus was gone i set up my mattress in the bathroom, but on opening the door i found Mara fast asleep on my bed. i gave it up as a lost cause and just got ready for bed, by the time my head hit the pillow is was out like a light

"Luke, yo Luke wake up"

just once I'd like to get to sleep in on a weekend

"Marcus its early why aren't you asleep"

"well because the Judoon are really loud and they woke me up"

my eyes snapped awake at that

"what?"

i quickly looked around the room, it was a large well lit space, definitely not my room, i could hear the strange sounds of the Judoon outside the rooms only door

"yeah pretty much what I said, they must have taken us while we were asleep"

i looked down realised i was still in my pyjamas, taking a closer look at Marcus i realised he was wearing just his boxer shorts, despite the situation i burst out laughing, it really was hard to take this seriously with him like that

"stop laughing Luke this isn't funny, after what you said about the Judoon I'm worried they think we're Mara's accomplices"

he had a point, but i couldn't help but notice a furious shade of red covering creeping across his face

"alright then, lets find out why we're here"

i moved to knock on the door try and get some answers out of the Judoon, before i was even half-way across the room the door opened and Mara stepped through

"ah there you are gentleman i was wondering when they'd bring you up"

i noticed she was in handcuffs, and it was the Judoon who pushed her through the door, before i could speak it was slam shut behind her

"alright Mara whats going on?"

"I'm not sure, i thought i was safe on earth, outside of the Judoons jurisdiction, apparently i was mistaken"

"no your right the Judoon have no authority on earth, but why are we here?"

"well they've brought in a judge, official type, to preside over my trial and i needed a few lawyers to defend myself"

Marcus gave an unintentional shiver when she mentioned the judge, and unfortunately drew Mara's attention

"and what have we here, don't you dress to impress"

he was blushing like mad at that,and i had to turn away to avoid another fit of laughter

"attention prisoner and representatives, you will now be presented to the courts"

the Judoons gravelly voice wasn't that different from captain Tibo but i think most Judoon sound like that

"grr, the males attire violates planets decency laws"

marcus looked really annoyed at that

"its not my fault you snatched me from my bed in the middle of the night"

"very well clothing will be provided"

once we were ready we were led into a huge amphitheatre the judge wasn't quite what i was expecting but he cut a dark imposing figure

"all parties will be seated, case in session, Mara accused of the theft of the crown of Solaris against Varon duke of Arzon representing Solaris"

mum had taught me never to judge people by what i see, but this guy, the look on his face, like a spider at the centre of a web, i knew he was dangerous

"first stage of trial Varon present evidence"

"very well your honour, my first piece of evidence is this, video recording of the accused with the crown in hand, inside the vault"

a holographic display lit up in the centre of the room showing Mara entering the vault

"evidence accepted, accused may now present first defence"

"well that would be you boys"

all eyes turned to us, and for once in my life i didn't know what to say, luckily Marcus recovered first

"OK then how about this, this video doesn't show and image of Mara entering the vaults, because she uses an image translator, can you prove that isn't just someone else presenting the same image"

he was right, Mara let her translator flicker quickly to prove that Marcus was telling the truth and then all eyes turned back to Varon

"first stage of trial completed, court rules in favor of the accused, stage two will now commence, Varon present next piece of evidence"

we were off to a good start, but Varon didn't look phased in the slightest

"gladly my second piece of evidence, a biometric scan taken showing someone with Mara's DNA signature near the vaults"

"evidence accepted accused may now present your defence"

Marcus wheeled around, clearly he was lost for ideas, luckily i was beginning to understand how these courts worked

"my turn then, let me get things right, Mara has been accused of taking the crown of Solaris from the vault am i right"

"correct"

"and in that video footage it shows Mara crown in hand outside the Solarans vaults"

"correct"

"then neither piece of evidence can prove Mara guilty because there is no proof that she ever entered the vault, and if that's the case she couldn't have stolen the crown"

"second stage of trial completed, court rules in favour of the accused, stage three will now commence, Varon present next piece of evidence"

Varonwasn't looking very happy considering our luck so far but i got the impression that he had an ace up his sleeve

"my third piece of evidence, a strand of her hair found inside the vaults"

"evidence accepted, accused may now present your defence"

this was really bad, i looked to Marcus, but it was clear neither of use knew what to do

"as is the right of the accused i will take time to talk in private with my defence"

i shouldn't have been surprised that Mara would know her way around legal proceedings, but its a good thing she did that cause i'm out of ideas

"accepted, Judoon will lead you to a conference room"

she had brought us some time, and that was good, but i didn't know what we could do

"well i must say I'm impressed boys, but if you stop now all your efforts will be for nothing"

"well I'm sorry Mara but its really hard to prove your innocence in a crime which you did commit, why are we even helping you, you've been nothing but trouble since you landed"

she looked hurt by what i said

"look this case really isn't about that crown, that man out there Varon we have a history, the only reason he is representing Solaris is so he can get revenge on me, he doesn't care about justice, he's just trying to soothe his ego, and as for why your helping me, you two know enough about me to know I'm not all bad, and i thought if you knew that you would help me"

Marcus gave me a quick nod, she was telling the truth

"alright then Mara, is there a terminal around here, we need to find some kind of loophole"

she pressed against a section of the wall revealing a computer terminal

"alright then boys we have about ten minutes, lets get to work"

we searched through endless galactic laws together, but nothing was coming up that would help us, except that

"hey guys look at this, its says here that the victim of the crime can drop all charges against the accused to dismiss the case"

"that's great Luke, but i don't think Varon will be that nice to me"

"but Varon isn't the victim here, the royal family of Solaris is"

"i doubt they'll be any more forgiving than Varon, and besides they're a galaxy away"

i felt a big grin cross my face, oh how wrong she was

"actually a member of the royal family is closer than you think, Mara may i introduce you to the crowned prince of Solaris"

i didn't think anything would surprise her, but my revelation left her speechless, Marcus on the other hand looked angry

"No Luke don't even think about it"

of all the responses he could of given i wasn't expecting that

"what do you mean? if you agree to drop all charges against Mara she goes free"

there was a shade of deep crimson in his eyes, and for the first time in a long time i was a little bit afraid

"i know what you want me to do Luke, and my answer is still no, if i reveal myself to the courts then notification will be sent to Solaris, they'll find me"

"so what, they already know your on earth what harm can it do?"

his eyes still burnt red, but his hair was streaked with white, he was afraid

"only the alliance knows I'm on earth, if my father finds out where i am he'll kill me"

"what you can't be serious he's your father why would he do that"

"because! because he's crazy, at the very start of the war, during the first bombing raids, my mother she...after it happened by Dad, he wasn't the same, he was never Mr personality but after he funeral any trace of emotion sort of faded, he became merciless, ruthless. if he finds out I'm on earth he'll drag me back to Solaris and have me executed as a traitor for abandoning my planet"

i didn't know what to say, there was so much emotion knotted up inside him and i don't know what will convince him to help

"Marcus perhaps in exchange for helping me i can offer you a better hiding place somewhere the king will never find you"

Mara looked hopeful, but when he looked at her his face was hard as stone

"i will not risk my father finding me just to keep a criminal out of jail"

before either me or Mara could respond he had stormed out of our holding cell and back into the courtroom

"Mara i don't know what else we can try"

"there isn't anything else to try Luke, its time to face the music"

we walked side by side back into the courts i hadn't gotten off to a good start with Mara but she was nice when she wasn't being obnoxious, she's my friend and i let her down

"if there is no further evidence to be brought to the attention of the court the accused is pronounced, guilty"

i looked at Marcus, i can't believe he is just going to let them do this to her. Mara didn't seem to surprised as they took her away

"thanks for trying Luke, you did the best you could"

"Mara I'm sorry"

"oh don't worry Luke this is hardly the end of me, I'm sure we'll meet again sooner or later, probably later"

she gave a quick look at Marcus who was staring determinedly at his feet

"the case is closed, accused will serve out her sentence in stormcage prison, all lawyers will now be returned"

i didn't wait for Luke to get his bearings before i started off towards my room, i feel like a traitor, i am a traitor, he isn't gonna let this go

"Marcus stop" i tried to keep walking but he reached out and turned me around "i said stop!"

"Why, i know what you're going to say, and i can sense how mad you are at me"

"that doesn't mean I'm going to let you walk away, how could you do that, you could have helped her!"

"and done what, sure i could have told the courts who i was i might have been able to help her but then they'd find me and I'd get dragged back to my home, to be executed"

"so maybe you need to go back there, face your fears, stand up to your father, stop him. you can't keep running from this forever"

i knew he was right but i didn't want to hear about this right now, i can't go back there, i won't

"look who's telling me to face my fears, the little boy who can't even face an echo of his nightmares without someone there to hold his hand"

i realised what i was saying a second too late, there wasn't a shred of anger in his face when i spoke, just pain, I'd hurt him. i took a step towards him trying to think of something to say, before i could manage a word he punched me, straight in the chest, and i fell hard against the floor.

"you know i don't think its fear that's holding you back"

there were tears welling in his eyes as he spoke, and he let all of his emotions spill over into my mind with every word

"i think its shame that's keeping you here, you ran away, when you should have stayed, you were in a position to stop the war, you could have ended it before it even began, and instead you ran, now your too ashamed of what you did to go back, well i hope you enjoy your stay here on earth"

without a word he turned on his heels and walked away, he closed off his mind as he went, i wanted to say something, to apologise, instead i just sat there on the ground and watched as my best friend on earth walked away, eventually i got back on my feet and started the slow march back to my room, i never realised just how much of an effect Luke had on my mind, now that he was gone my mind felt empty, his mind had glowed so bright with every knew thing he had experienced and now things were just dull and colorless.

"most people have just one life, and I've managed to screw up two, earth was my second chance and i blew it"

still he's right, I've been running from my past for too long, packing up the few belongings i had, and walked out into the open courtyard, i turned to look at his window

"bye Luke"

reaching for my scanner i flicked open the back and activated the homing beacon

"alright then dad, come and get me"


	6. the Final Confrontation part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alone and captured both Luke and Marcus have to face their demons of die trying

"alright then dad, come and get me"

i wasn't kept waiting for long, i closed my eyes for a split second, and when i opened them again i was surrounded

"hello Marcus, its been a while"

"Krell, its good to see you again, i figured my father would send you"

"all those years of running youngling, I'm impressed it took me this long to find you"

"well you taught me well, now i don't know about you but I've been standing around here for almost two hours now feet are numb so lets get this over with"

"as you wish"

with a single command the soldier behind me stepped forwards, and the blow to the back of my head knocked me out cold

"Master Luke, mistress was quite insistent, it is time to get out of bed"

"why K-9, mum knows I'm keeping up with my uni work my studies are progressing just fine"

"perhaps, but your social skills are not" i really shouldn't let K-9 talk to mum so much "you have not left your room except to attend lectures, i believe this is what humans call sulking, a phenomenon most often experienced by human infants"

"well call it an experiment, I've never gotten a chance to be an infant, I'm seeing what sulking is like"

i knew i was being a brat, but after four days i was still angry and didn't know where to put it, every other time i felt angry like this it was because of some alien causing trouble threatening my friends, it was easy i wanted to be angry at them, but this is different. bev and Mitch called a few times to try and get me to hang out with them, but after i kept turning them down they eventually just gave up. i did go round to Marcus's room at one point to talk to him, but there was no sign, i think he ran away again.

"Master Luke..."

"be quiet K-9! now power down for the night"

"Yes master"

i let out a growl of frustration, why do emotions have to be so complicated

i estimated i had been asleep a few hours when K-9 woke me up again

"Master Luke alert a small group of UNIT officers are converging on this location"

"what! are you sure"

"affirmative Master Luke, i estimate that there is a 93% chance that you are their intended target"

"then we need to get out of here"

"agreed Master Luke, but all exits are guarded"

i had been scrambling around my room, gathering up my phone and my car keys when K-9 said that, it brought my flurry of motion to a sudden stop

"K-9 what do you estimate my chances of escape are"

"approximately 2% chance Master Luke"

ughh i hate this, I'm one of the smartest people for miles around and i can't even think of a way to save myself from being captured

"ok K-9 new plan, you're going to hide"

"Master?"

"they don't know about you, if you hide until i'm gone then you'll be able to escape and get a message to my mum"

"i cannot comply master Luke i promised Mistress Sarah-Jane that i would protect you, and you are also capable of contacting her"

"I've already tried my phone, UNIT is interfering with the signal, Internet is probably down as well"

"i'm sorry Master Luke but i will not leave as you ask"

"I'm sorry as well K-9"

i bent down pretending to hug K-9 but instead i flicked the reboot on his back, i had to be quick, he would be back online in 10 minutes

i ran down the stairs as quickly as i could, i new K-9 would try and stop me, but if they capture him as well i'm in real trouble. i jumped the last few stairs that lead to the entrance hall and came face to face with the man mum had warned me about

"ah Luke i was hoping to see you again, and i see you're alone, all the better"

"what do you want Cutter"

"you of course, now i hope you aren't going to make a scene Luke, i wouldn't want you're mother catching wind of this operation too quickly"

despite the danger i couldn't help but smile

"at least you're not a complete idiot Cutter, you're smart enough to be afraid of my mum"

"yes your mother is indeed a formidable woman, but she isn't here to protect you now, no one is"

for the first time in about a week i found myself wishing Marcus was still here, wishing he would come swaggering through the front doors and send Cutter scurrying away just like last time but he wasn't, so i would just have to go along with this for now and hope that K-9 can get a message to mum

"fine you win lets go Cutter"

"very good, men take him away"

"negative you will not hurt master Luke"

K-9's laser fired twice before i managed to catch sight of him, he was just off to my left and his laser scattered Cutter's men and they had to take cover behind the reception desk to save themselves

"pesky little Mutt this should tech you a lesson"

there was a sharp whistling sound. followed by a small explosion. the force threw me against the wall and a piece of shrapnel drew a line of blood across my face, but i barely felt it, the only thing that occupied my mind was a small red light in amongst the smoke from the explosion as it slowly faded. i tried to fight against Cutter and his men after that but i wasn't strong enough, they grabbed me under my arms and once outside chucked me in the back of a black UNIT van.

alone and in the dark i was returned to the place of my nightmares only this time it was reality and no one was coming to my rescue

it was a horrifying sight flying over Solaris, the planet i grew up on, it was barely recognisable. the planet i remember, green with shades of blue and the brightest colours swirling past my eyes, even the simplest parts of the planet were exploding with life. but now the only swirling colours were ribbons of fire tearing apart homes and families, i should never have let this happen.

the ship landed quietly besides the palace, Krell lead me quickly to the heart of the palace, the throne room. i could sense my father waiting there his emotions seething behind his cold exterior, finally the doors were flung open and i got to see him face to face once more

"its been almost a decade and finally you have the backbone to face me, boy"

"i see the state of the planet hasn't improved since i left father"

that was all it took to change my father, a deep black burned in his eyes, true hatred

"how dare you address me like that, traitor!"

"traitor am i father, what does that make you"

he looked ready to kill me then and there and he was probably going to but I'm not going to let him kill me without a fight

"you, who used to be my son abandoned you're planet, you are a traitor, and as such are sentenced to death, Krell!"

i felt him step up behind me, his gun pressed against the back of my head

"any last words"

"just a few father"

a quick side-step and i had Krell's gun in my hands, before anyone could react he was on the floor and i had his gun pointed at my fathers head

"i'd tell your men to lower their weapons father"

i knew every other gun in the room was pointed at me, but i didn't care, i had the advantage here

"you won't shoot me Marcus, however much you hate me"

"are you sure father"

"of course, after all, what would your mother say if she could see you now"

those words left his lips and i felt all the wind knocked out of me, even as i tried my best to hold the gun steady i felt my resolve i had shatter

"you're already nothing to my eyes, but can you really destroy the image you're mother always had of you, she thought you would grow up to do great things, but she never would have believed that you could become a murderer"

i thought i was ready, i thought i could stop him, but i can't even hold back my tears, can't even hold the gun straight

"put down that gun Marcus and die with dignity"

my knees gave out beneath me and my stolen weapon was taken by krell

"you're still weak, you don't have the strength to do what is necessary, Krell do it"

Krell looked like he was about to comply for a moment, but for the first time since i had known him, he hesitated

"your highness if i may, i don't believe i can execute him, i have watched him grow during my time as a palace guard, and despite all he has done i cannot do this"

frustration was etched over my fathers face

"i am surrounded by incompetence, fine if you will not do it Krell, i know several thousand alliance soldiers who will, lock him away, in the morning he will be sent to the front lines, perhaps there you can die with some dignity, take him away!"

if only for a few more hours i was going to live, i knew i probably wouldn't live to escape this planet, but even for a few more hours. the cell i was taken to had no windows and only one door, i thought for a few moments about escape but gave it up as a lost cause and collapsed on the cold stone floor

"guess there's no running away this time"

"good its about time you stopped running away"

i thought for a few seconds i was hearing things

"Luke?"


	7. the Final Confrontation part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who wants to rule the world?

"Luke!"

'of course'

i still couldn't hear anything but his words were echoing through my mind

"how are you doing that"

'you can thank UNIT for that'

"what do you mean"

'after you left, Cutter came back and took me, they've hooked me up to MITRE headset and a massive amplifier, they're using me as a power source for a huge telekinetic weapon that they built into the UNIT moonbase'

i felt bad at not being able to stop my father, but this made me feel like a complete failure, i could feel despair creeping over my skin

"your on the moon!"

'yeah, they had a telport relay set up in the centre of the black archives from there Cutter brought me here"

"and your using the amplifier to contact me"

'yeah, it took some effort but the machines are amplifying my telepathic ability as well, and as far as i can tell Cutter hasn't noticed yet, where are you?'

"i'm back on solaris, i decided to take your advice, face my father, although it isn't going so well, i'm in jail being sent to the frontlines tommorow"

i felt a surge of mixed emotions from Luke at that, but after a few seconds they disappeared again

'so you're not going to be able to help then'

"not from here, i've tried to get out a few times but no luck, can't you contact your mum ask her to help"

'i've tried, every time i try to focus on the earth the machines stop me'

i could sense luke's uncertainty and fear mirroring my own, we were both stuck galaxies apart and neither of us had friends to call on, but i'm not going to let him down again

"right sit tight luke i'm gonna get you out of there"

'how?, you're trapped too'

"i don't know, yet, but i'm tired of screwing up other peoples lives as well as my own, so this is what i'll do; i'm gonna escape this cell, bring down my father, rescue you and just for good measure bring an end to the civil war on solaris"

i couldn't be certain but for a second i sensed a brief burst of hope from Luke

'alright, i'm not gonna be able to do much to help, but i think i should be able to help with item number one on your list'

before i could ask what he was talking about the cell door crumpled and buckled, and after a few seconds was thrown off the hinges completely

"well that was impressive"

'thanks'

i could still hear Luke but his voice was a lot fainter

"are you alright"

'yeah it just took a lot more effort than i thought'

"not surprised i'm an entrire galaxy Luke i would've thought that was impossible, but the two of us have pretty much cornered the market on impossible recently"

'alright, be quick i can feel them activating the machine again'

"OK i'll get to you as quickly as i can, just hold tight"

the connection faded and i set off slowly through the palace, i needed to get to luke, but i can't just leave Solaris like this, but i won't be able to stop my dad on my own, luckily i have one last ally on this planet

"i don't understand, how did he escape"

"i'm not sure your highness, the door was ripped free from his hinges, i still can't understand how he did it"

"this makes twice you've failed me Krell, isn't there someone that can tell me where that traitorous little worm is"

"right here father"

perched on the window frame wasn't the safest place in the world but it was worth it for dramatic effect, my father, krell and every other person in the war room was staring in shock

"you never were very bright Marcus, Krell if you would"

not this time

"Aphelion now"

behind me, my starship Aphelion rose the outside of the ship was shining in the morning sun. the engines blew out the windows and almost made me lose my footing, before my father could speak over the thunderous noise a bright blue glow surrounded him and he disappeared

"thank you aphelion take him up into orbit keep him there until i say otherwise"

"right away Marcus, do i have your permission to engage the auto-sleep, he's making quite a fuss"

"if you want, and don't forget the cloaking device"

watching my spaceship disappear up into the sky i turned to Krell and the rest of the room, he had already called at least a dozen more guards into the room

"not a bad ploy youngling, but it would've been wiser for you to leave as well"

"no for once Krell i'm not running away, now stand down"

this earned a snort of indignation from one of fathers ministers Seth if i remember correctly

"what right do you have to give orders to the kings guards boy"

he's just arrogant enough to make this fun

"actually i have every right to make that order Seth, according to the laws my father set down, in a time of war if the king is kidnapped or his position is compromised, control of the courts falls to the next appointed heir to the throne, in other words me"

whatever arguement seth was about to make stalled in his throat, and all the colour faded from his face and the face of everyone else in the war meeting, except for Krell, he almost looked happy with this turn of events

"the prince or should i say King is correct, what are your orders your majesty"

your majesty, when i was younger i thought being king would be fantastic, but now all i really wanted was to be back on earth with Luke hanging around and going on crazy adventures

"thank you Krell, i want you to make contact with all the leaders of the alliance i want to speak with them immediately, tell them it concerns a ceasefire of sorts"

"as you command your majesty"

it took a few hours but Krell finally managed to set up visual links with every leading member of the alliance

"the king summoned us with talk of a ceasefire and all we get to talk to is a boy"

there were about a dozen members in total each were battle hardened veterans

"no actually gentleman, i am the king and it was me that summoned you"

this caused a stir

"and why is it you called us, king"

"i wanted to talk to you, and discuss the terms for the formation of the Solaran alliance

that caused an even bigger stir

"are you serious child, this is a foolish course of action if you are intending to provoke us"

"i'm not, whatever my father says i love this planet, and i hate to see it torn apart by war, so i'm ending it, as of now i'm calling back all troops from the frontline and declaring a ceasefire between all factions, Krell give the order"

a short command from Krell and a messenger was dispatched with the orders, turning back to the allinace leaders i decided there was one last thing i needed to do

"this is a bold move young king but i believe just as you do that it is for the best of Solaris, i will be happy to meet you and begin negotiations"

there was a murmur of consent from the other leaders

"i'm glad you feel that way, but i'm afraid it isn't me you will be negotiating with, it will be Krell"

for the first time since i had known him Krell looked truly surprised

"your Majesty i don't understand"

"Krell, these negotiations aren't going to be easy, they need someone wise to steer them in the right directions, i can't think of anyone better to put this planet right"

that made him smile

"thank you, Marcus, but what will you do now"

my thoughts immediately turned to Luke and my life back on earth

"i'm going back to earth, i have a friend to rescue and i imagine about 10 new coursework deadlines to deal with, and i'm taking my father with me, i know just the place for him"

"i don't imagine you will need much help from me but i will offer assistance if you want"

"don't worry i'm not going to be able to do it alone but i know just who to ask for help"

one last nod and Krell disappeared. thats points one two and four on my list now for Luke

a few hours later, stormcage prison

"well well well you are the last person i'd expect to turn up outside my cell, and exactly why are you here Marcus"

"i've come to apologise Mara"

i felt a deep anger from her veiled by sarcasm, and i could hardly blame her for feeling that way

"and what reason could you give me to forgive you Marcus"

"well for one i'm willing to bribe you with a full pardon from the royal court of Solaris, and second i need your help to rescue Luke"

"is he alright?"

"not for much longer if we can't rescue him so do you forgive me"

"well i guess i could forgive you, and besides i owe that cute little geek of yours a lot for trying to help, now how are we getting there, i have a feeling that asking to borrow a prison ship would be pushing my luck"

"agreed, but don't worry i brought mine"

we both got on board aphelion, but before we could leave i had one more thing to do. moving to the back of the ship i slapped my father in the face a few times to wake him up

"what are you doing were are we, where have you taken me boy"

"stormcage father"

"what about Solaris, what have you done"

"what you should have done years ago father, i ended the war, by helping form the alliance"

i expected more bluster, but he accepted what i said with surprising clarity

"and why have you awoken me then boy"

"i'm not sure what to do with you father so until i can decide, i'm leaving you here in stormcage, you won't be hurt but you can never leave, hopefully this will give you time to come to terms with everything you've done"

he left the ship wordlessly and the guards took him gently into the Jail

"right aphelion we need to get to earth the moon specifically, set a course"

"right away Marcus"

don't worry Luke we're coming

UNIT moon base

we were close to the moon the base was in sight but what drew are attention was the belt of debris that surrounded the moon, the wreckage of dozens of alien ships

"what happened here"

"luke said they were using him as a power source for a telekinetic weapon, this is what happens when you leave someone like Cutter in charge of such a powerful weapon"

i dragged my eyes away from the wreckage and turned to the controls

"aphelion are we cloaked"

"yes, don't worry i have no desire to be ripped apart"

"alright get us close to the moon base, we can use the short range teleport to get onboard"

i left the controls to aphelion to speak to Mara

"Marcus i know Luke isn't exactly normal but even for him this machine must be taking its toll, we need to rescue him quickly, so do you have a plan"

"no i do..." or do i "actually i do, they have Luke hooked up to a giant telekinetic amplifier"

"correct"

"but they have machines keeping him under control"

"correct"

"what do you think would happen if we were to set him loose, put the amplifier under Luke's control"

Mara looked almost impressed

"alright then lets get down to business"

aphelion dropped us into an unnocupied part of the base, and we quickly got to work

"right Mara you need to get to machine's shut them down put Luke in control"

"and what will you be doing, and why am in getting the hard job"

"your not getting the hard job, i'm gonna be the distraction and get myself to Luke"

"alright then, good luck"

we split up and i quickly made my way down the clincally white tunnel aphelion feeding directions into my ear piece as i ran, after less than 30 seconds i found what i was looking for

"hello gentlemen, ladies, there's an alien running around you base, have you seen him"

now that got their attention. i took off with several UNIT officers hot on my heels. aphelion directed me quickly through the base taking a final turn i struck out at the door controls and took a few moments to take a breath

"not one inch alien scum, if i see so much as a flicker of darkness in your eyes i will kill you were you stand"

i stood up slowly, i don't know how Cutter managed to sneak up on me, but his gun was pointed straight at my head

"i'd be careful Cutter, if that bullet misses me and hits one of these exterior walls this whole compartment will depressurise"

he took a few steps closer and pressed the gun against my forehead

"then i'd best be certain i don't miss, you know in a way i'm glad you're here, our last encounter..."

"left you looking like a complete coward"

my intteruption earned me a hand at my throat

"something like that, but now it seems i will get my revenge, goodbye Marcus"

i closed my eyes and waited for the bullet, but it never came, when i opened my eyes again Cutter was still standing there with his gun against my head but it looked like he was fighting against an unseen force, trying to pull the trigger

"what are you doing to me"

i let out the breath i didn't realise i was holding

"not me Cutter, Luke, with a little help from Mara"

"its not possible, we have him under control"

"No, you did have him under control, but now the machines are disabled and you have one incredibly angry Luke strapped to a huge telekinetic amplifier, not you're best plan"

as if to prove my point Cutter was thrown against the other wall by Luke and had his arms pinned against the wall

"you, can't do this"

i could feel waves of anger from the centre of the base, flowing from luke, but it was kept in check by something i still didn't fully understand

"you know Cutter you should just be grateful it was Luke you put in that machine, if it was me you'd be dead now, but despite the fact that you kidnapped him, tied him up and threatened him, he still won't kill you, its his humanity thats keeping it in check, he's more human than you could ever be"

before i could say anymore i heard Mara's voice crackling over the radio

"as much fun as gloating probably is can we move things along, i have a bunch of trigger-happy UNIT soldiers outside this room and they won't go away"

"alright Mara i'm almost to Luke, i'll tell Aphelion to pick you up first, Luke i'll leave Cutter to you"

as i took off down the corridor i heard a thud and saw Cutter slide to the floor. a few more turns and i was outside the chamber luke was in

"aphelion have you picked up Mara yet"

"yes Marcus, and you'd best tell her to keep her hands to herself or i may decide to test the airlocks"

i waited a few seconds until Mara's outraged outburst subsided before i continued

"good in that case i need you to do a short range teleportation, get me through these doors, oh and no ejecting Mara into space"

"very well"

a brief flash of light and i was in the same room as Luke, he was in the centre of a web of cables machinery, i weaved my way through all the cables until i was standing next to luke

"no i won't let you do this he is our weapon" Cutter was unarmed but had a maniacal glint in his eye "he belongs to UNIT"

'wrong Cutter i don't belong to anyone'

i could tell that Luke's voice was echoing through Cutter's mind as well as mine

'you used my mind to do awful things, i'm going to make sure you can never use this weapon again'

even as luke spoke i heard the base creaking around me

"no you can't do this"

'i can and i am Cutter, now run!"

a final Creaking sound and the room we were in cracked open and begun to derpressurise. i moved very quickly disconnecting Luke, i tried to pull him to his feet but lukes final effort had left him out of it so i lifted him up and called for aphelion, my last sight of the room we were in was Cutter rushing out of compartment as fast as he could

i tried to open my eyes, but my eyelids were heavy and i could barely move my arms, i could hear Marcus, Mara and another voice i didn't recognise

"is he alright"

"i think so, can you help aphelion locate Sarah-Jane, she's probably at her house, 13 bannerman road"

i found myself wondering who aphelion was, but i couldn't concentrate so the thought quickly slipped away. i felt Marcus pull me into a sitting position

"this might sting a little but it will make sure that cut on your cheek doesn't get infected"

i felt a brief sting on my cheek, but afterwards felt a lot better. i tried to speak but my throat was dry and sore, after a few attempts i managed a few croaky words

"i can't move my arms"

i still couldn't open my eyes but i could hear him searching for something after a few second i felt something smooth and metalic placed in my hands

"keep hold of this, it will send a small electic current through your body, get your muscles back in working order"

after a few seconds i felt a strange tingling sensation through my body. after a few minutes he took it back and allowed me to flex my fingers a few times

"right can you try opening your eyes Luke"

i did as he asked but all i could see was a blur of colours, after a few moments the images in front of me came into focus and i could see Marcus leant in close with a worried expression on his face

"how are you feeling"

"my head hurts"

he was nodding his head in agreements

"thats to be expected, give it a couple of days and a lot of sleep and you should feel better"

there was a dark blue colour sweeping through his hair and in his eyes, i knew what that meant but i wasn't sure what to say just yet so i quickly changed the subject

"did you break Mara out of jail"

he smiled at that

"no i gave her an official pardon from the royal family of Solaris"

there was another lull in conversation and i decided to take a look around his spaceship, it was really quite amazing

"is this your ship Marcus"

"yeah she's the third member of the rescue party"

"is she an artificial intelligence"

"not quite, she's actually similar to Mr Smith, except she's a crystal given life by emotions, my mum taught me how to make her"

"thats incredible"

he looked quite proud of himself

"luke...i'm sorry"

i Knew this was coming

"why are you sorry, you were right about everything you said"

he didn't look like he knew what to say to that

"what do you mean"

i had a lot of time to think waiting for my rescue, it gave me time to think

"the last time i saw you, you called me a frightened child, someone who couldn't face his nightmares without a hand to hold" his face fell, and his eyes were full of shame "and you were right about that, but what i didn't realise was that i wasn't the only one you were talking about"

"what do you mean"

"you had a nightmare man of your own to face, your father, i don't think you wanted to upset me, you just wanted someone to hold your hand, face your father with you but all i did was shout, so i'm sorry"

we both just sat there for a minute

"guess we're both pretty daft aren't we"

i laughed at that, and felt a lot better because of it

"can we be friends again then Luke"

according to Clyde and his cool rule's, boys never really speak about their feelings, so i just nodded, but i'm happy he's back

"right gentlemen, now that your little heart to heart is over can one of you tell this awkward spaceship to move already"

Mara's comment earned her a burst from Aphelions fire extinguisher, so we both quickly moved to the front of the ship

"did you find Luke's mum then?"

Mara brushed the foam out of her eyes and glared at the console before she spoke

"yes about five minutes ago actually, but this bucket of bolts refuses to move"

"alright aphelion would you please take us to my mum"

i saw the fire extinguisher move above my head, but Marcus gave the console a short sharp slap

"Aphelion this is Luke, he's my friend so you're not allowed to squirt him with the fire extinguisher, now take us to Sarah-Jane please"

"very well Marcus, destination 13 bannerman road"

it took us less than five minutes to re-enter the atmosphere and it was already getting dark over bannerman road, Aphelion stopped almost directly over mums house and then teleported us into the attic were mum was waiting

"Sarah-Jane incoming transmat beam"

"oh if they've come looking for trouble they picked the wrong..."

Clyde's words were cut short when he saw us i imagine we looked pretty rough around the edges, but that didn't stop mum running across the room and pulling me into a hug, followed quickly by Clyde and then Rani

"oh Luke we've been so worried, what happened, where have you been, there was an accident at oxford, and we found K-9, and then we couldn't find you"

mum kept going like this for a few seconds but i couldn't really hear here, i'd forgotten about K-9 but now everything that happened came back at once and i almost broke down crying, but before i could i felt Marcus reach out with his mind and hold back my despair

"mum K-9 he tried to stop Cutter from taking me, but he, i think he was destroyed"

she just smiled at that

"negative Master Luke, it will take more than that for me to stop functioning"

K-9 wheeled out from behind Clyde and Rani, one side was still open and i could see the broken side panel next to Mr Smith, but he was there

"good dog K-9"

"naturally Master"

Rani decided she'd been quiet long enough and spoke up

"yeah we found him in the reception of your building, what happened its been over a week, we looked everywhere but there was no sign of either of you"

"Cutter captured me and damaged K-9, he took me to the UNIT moonbase which is probably why you couldn't find me"

"and what about you Marcus i thought you were supposed to be keeping an eye on luke"

clyde had stepped forwards and was standing face to face with Marcus

"i got captured by my fathers soldiers and taken to Solaris"

rani stepped up behind Clyde

"see Clyde it wasn't his fault, and he helped rescue Luke so just relax a bit"

mum looked thoroughly amused by Clyde but her expression turned serious as she turned to me

"but why did they take you to the moon base, and does it have anything to do with all the distress signals Mr Smith has been recieving"

intellectually i knew what happened, what Cutter used the weapon for was not my fault, but i still couldn't look mum in the eyes, i glanced at Marcus and he took over

"they had created their own version of the MITRE headset Sarah-Jane, and then attached it to an amplfier, Cutter was using it as a weapon"

mum looked at Marcus and then at me before nodding her head, a stoic expression on her face

"and did you two destroy this weapon"

Marcus nodded his head and mum relaxed a little

"well good that just leaves me"

all eyes turned to Mara who had been oddly quiet up until this point

"yeah sorry, mum, clyde, rani this is Mara, she was one of my rescuers"

mum walked over and held out her hand, which Mara excepted

"thank you for helping to rescue my son"

"no problem, besided i owe him a lot, now Marcus can you convince your ship to give me a lift home, its been a while and i feel like seeing some familiar faces"

"yeah sure, aphelion, take Mara wherever she wants to go, and play nice OK"

marcus smiled, i guessed he had just gotten a sarcastic response from Aphelion. i stepped forwards quickly before Mara left

"thanks Mara for everything"

"no problem, after you two helped spring me from jail i figure it was the least i could do" i could almost hear mum folding her arms behind me, that would take some explaining "but seriously, you and Marcus look after each other alright"

a flash of blue light and she was gone, back to the stars

"alright, i imagine everyone is a bit tired, you all can stay here tonight if you want, i'll fetch out the sleeping bags"

we set up the sleeping bags and got settled around my room

"so you were really a king of an entire planet"

Rani and Clyde had been bombarding Marcus with questions for the last ten minutes, and i was quite content to just lay there and listen

"yeah for a short time at least, but now the war is over and the monarchy doesn't really exist anymore"

i would love to be king, do you think i'd make a good king lukey boy.

"i dunno Clyde its a lot of work"

he shrugged and layed back, something tells me he was imagining life as a king

"so Marcus, are you and Luke gonna go back to uni"

he looked at me for a few seconds and i gave him a quick nod of agreement

"yeah i reckon so, we both have a couple of years to go yet, besides who else is gonna defend the university from aliens"

"hmm luke and marcus defending planet earth from a dorm room in oxford"

everyone laughed at that, although Clyde looked a bit put out that Rani had made the joke instead of him. the three of them kept talking but i had closed my eyes and drifted off into a deep sleep trying to imagine what adventures we both still had to come

 

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"what are we going to do commander, the weapon sales on Solaris have dried up, and we still haven't amassed the funds we need"

"there is nothing we can do, the money we have will not be enough to satisfy them, they will sweep us away in a wave of fire"

"what are your orders then sir"

"take every man you have and begin evacuations, there is nothing else to be done, they will be here soon and nothing will stop them"


End file.
